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Nuclear deal opens Iran for global business - and shuts out the US

To say that it was difficult getting to the point where the nuclear deal signed by the United States and five other international powers with Iran would finally stand and not be nixed by US lawmakers would be an understatement.

Talks by the group consisting of the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany with Iran began in 2006, but it wasn't until 2013 that the parties were able to reach an interim agreement. It then took two more years until the final deal was signed two months ago.

And as soon as it became clear that an accord was in fact within reach, Republicans in the US Congress, in close cooperation with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanjahu, started a massive public relations effort to convince legislators in Washington to kill the deal. Their campaign climaxed in Netanyahu's unprecedented anti-Iran deal speech before Congress.